Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Nanny Statists v. Best Friends

This Big Journalism piece on an NYT article shows how bizarre some of the self-presumed enlightened are getting in our culture.
A Best Friend? You Must Be Kidding

After all, from Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn to Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, the childhood "best friend" has long been romanticized in literature and pop culture - not to mention in the sentimental memories of countless adults.

But increasingly, some educators and other professionals who work with children are asking a question that might surprise their parents: Should a child really have a best friend?

The NYT article goes on with the blathering of "experts" about the "need" to intervene in how children go about choosing friends. I get the part about not allowing some children to be neglected or excluded, but trying to change one more practice that has been intrinsic to human nature for thousands of years is just another example of fantasy do-goodism run wild.

Even if the voters act to restore some sanity to government this fall, we'll still have along way to go to clean out the nuttiness that has taken root in many of our institutions.

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